This case is close to closed.

The notorious hip-hop cop Derrick Parker says he thinks he knows who killed Jam Master Jay and that the case will come to a close in the near future.

Former NYPD Detective Parker ran a unit specifically related to crimes in the hip-hop community and used his granular knowledge of the city, its affiliations, and its movers and shakers to solve crimes for over 20 years as a cop. While he retired shortly after Jam Master Jay was shot and killed in a studio, Parker says that it seems like the pieces are finally falling into place for one of the cases he classifies as the Big Three (the other two being the murders of Tupac and Biggie).

“That case may come off the beat. Of any of the Big Three, that case is close to being solved,” he said in a new interview with VLADTV.

Parker attributes the long delay to the same problems that plague any investigation into murders carried out by people that the witnesses have to live among. “The problems that are happening in these cases, it’s cooperation, it’s corroboration of evidence and the willingness of the D.A.’s office to get involved,” he said.

Parker also said he doesn’t fully blame the people for not cooperating. He understands that it can be difficult to testify against people who have proven that they’re willing to kill others.

“They were afraid at the time. What’s in it for them? They have a lot to lose to come forward,” he said. “It’s not like anyone is stepping up to pay or to help them to relocate if they testify. There’s a lot of negatives that go along with coming forward.”

Parker added that this is true in all cases, not just high-profile ones like Jay’s case. “It’s all the time. People don’t want to get involved,” he revealed. “People have a false sense of what telling the truth on something and what snitching is.”

He then explained the difference between snitching outright and just helping an investigation. “If you go into a bank with another guy and you rob a bank and you go ‘Hey, it was me and this guy. We did it together.’ Eh, you’re snitching,” he said. “But if you see a crime and someone gets killed, that’s not really snitching.”

Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

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Renewed Interest

Source: YouTube @RUNDMCVEVO

The talk around Jay’s murder comes along with a wave of deep-dives into unsolved murders within the hip hop community. Tupac and Biggie have been the subject of a few new specials and TV projects.. Following the Who Shot Biggie & Tupac? special hosted by Ice-T and Soledad O’Brien, USA is unveiling an anthology series on dramatized investigations into unsolved mysteries starting with Biggie and Tupac.

Even the car that Tupac was riding in at the time that he died is being sold. Though the car has been restored, the broker assures morbid fans that this is the BMW that the rapper was gunned down in.

“There is a small indentation where we believe one of the bullet holes was but it is hard to tell. Other than that it is fully restored. The photo of the bullet holes is just for reference. The wheels have been replaced with the same wheels that it had at the time of the shooting. It runs great and is in excellent condition.”

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